So, this means, the season is officially over! A sad moment, but also a great time with the eagles! Thanks to Kotkaklubi, especially Urmas, Joosep and everyone who helped, for giving this time to us! Also to you, my fellow watchers, for looking and sharing whatever you saw! Hope we will see either some eagles or some black storks on this nest next summer!

And to Tuuli, Remo and especially Tormi: a good time in Africa, a safe return and always "wind under your wings" and enough moles, voles, mice and the like to eat!

_________________“One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals”(Mahatma Gandhi)

Couldn't resist and looked through the pictures I uploaded today - isn't that one cute?

Felis silvestris wrote:

Bubo wrote:

:bow: Thank you for this season! It was realy great that this year this nest wasn't empty and lonely. I hope to see Tuuli and Remo next season here

These are such wonderful pictures, Felis & Bubo. What good memories they spark for me. I am adding my grateful thank-you to Kotkaklubi, Urmas, Joosep, and everyone else who makes the cams available to us. I am eager to see who gets this nest next season, LSE family or BS family. I must admit, I hope for LSEs, as they are my favorites. And we did have a very good view of the BS family in thee new cam that was set up for us this summer. So fare well, Tuuli, Remo, & beautiful Tormi! (Will we ever find out if Tormi is a boy or a girl?)

Two cameras promised for next spring http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/11516!Thank you, Urmas! And thank you, Urmas and Joosep, for taking down and taking care of the cameras!The nettle - a legacy from Padis? - looks happy and healthy.

I need to calm you down for next year a bit, because next year should be vole poor and therefore more pairs of LSE will not lay the eggs. Nobody knows, what pairs exactly, but that possibility is higher as in recent year.Though, that is also absolutely normal in nature!

i think that predicting "vole-poor" and "vole-rich" years is a bit like predicting weather: there are certain signs that tell what is more or less likely to happen. populations of voles vary in cycles in which a vole-poor season follows a vole-rich one and vice versa. the seasons aren't necessarily one-year-long but maybe somewhat longer or shorter. - the vole-populations can also be in different phases in different areas so that there's a vole-poor season in one part of the country while another part of the country may be swarming with voles.

now that there have been a lot of voles it is probable that they have used up their food supplies. this will cause famine among the voles which will starve in large numbers, leaving only few of them alive. then the plants which voles eat will recover when there are less voles eating them. these few voles then have plenty of food and can make a lot of baby-voles, which means that the population will begin to increase. this goes on and on in cycles which are rather steady and predictable.

i'd like to know wheather the populations of voles and frogs somehow linked together. this year Remo brought a huge amount of frogs to the nest, not just voles. is it possible that a vole-poor year could be compensated by a frog-rich season? or the other way round? -- i have read in papers that frogs aren't doing very well at all: the populations of all kinds of frogs are decreasing all around the world and more and more frog species have become endangered...

Thanks for the answer! I hope that wherever the camera is, that it has lots of prey, and we get to see WTE next year. I really miss Linda ans Sulev!I missed the tawny owls, too, Klaara and Klause, because they didn't have a nest where they usually do. So, Maybe next year!

hi YTQ i hope the explanation i gave is a correct one. - i'm afraid it's going to be a difficult year ahead for Klaara and Klaus, too, if next year will be a vole-poor year. they are a lot more dependent on voles than the LSE, i'm afraid. if there will be really few voles around maybe they will not start nesting at all...

In the Owl forum Renno mentioned a three year vole cycle maybe with 2011(I think) being a maximum. I am not sure why it goes in three years -- I think it crashes from from over abundance and then the next year there are lots of predators and not many voles and so the next year there are not so many predators and the voles recover?

I do not know much about this, but does the winter have something to say about how the numbers of preys will be the following spring and summer? If it is a very cold/mild winter, and if it is much/little snow?

I guess besides studying the eagles, we will have to start studying the vole population as well. Since in Germany we've had a very bad year for them, I guess the cycle is not the same everywhere.

Yes the cycle is not the same everywhere. In Latvia this was good vole year like in Estonia. I was studied vole cycles in University but now I have forgotten some things and my English is not good enough to describe these cycles. I only would like to mention one fact. Vole cycles (3-4 years) are very well expressed in north (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Northern Russia). Farther south, for example in Latvia, this relation is not so well-expressed.

In the Owl forum Renno mentioned a three year vole cycle maybe with 2011(I think) being a maximum. I am not sure why it goes in three years -- I think it crashes from from over abundance and then the next year there are lots of predators and not many voles and so the next year there are not so many predators and the voles recover?

i was trying to remember this, too: is it the abundance of food supply for the voles or the predation pressure from the predators that decides the fortunes of voles?

these abundance cycles are known for other animals than voles, too. northern lemmings are a one example of this, and i think the variations in populations of snowshoe hare is a classic example of cyclic variations. i found this in Wikipedia:"Northern populations of snowshoe hares undergo cycles that range from 7 to 17 years between population peaks. The average time between peaks is approximately 10 years. The period of abundance usually lasts for 2 to 5 years followed by a population decline to lower numbers or local scarcity. Areas of great abundance tend to be scattered. Populations do not peak simultaneously in all areas, although there is a great deal of synchronicity in northern latitudes. From 1931 to 1948 the cycle was synchronized within 1 or 2 years over most of Canada and Alaska, despite differences in predators and food supplies. .... In the southern parts of its range snowshoe hare populations do not fluctuate radically.

Exclosure experiments in Alberta indicated that browsing by snowshoe hares during population peaks has the greatest impact on palatable species, thus further reducing the amount of available foods. In this study there was insufficient nutritious young browse available to sustain the number of snowshoe hares present in the peak years (1971 and 1972) in winter."

hmm... this seems to say that abundance of food or predators doesn't effect the numbers of snowshoes on the other hand but there is some unknown reason for the variations, and on the other that lack of food reduces the numbers of hares (well that makes sense: if there's no food starvation will inevitably result!!)

the numbers of predators on the other hand depend strongly on the numbers of voles and other prey. we've seen that in Klaara's and Klaus' nest in a tragic way.

a hard winter with lots of snow is good for voles as they can then live under a thick cover of snow in warmth and comfort.

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